1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a terminal fitting, a terminal fitting chain, a wire with a terminal fitting and a processing device therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Terminal fittings 1 before being crimped are generally coupled by a carrier 2, as shown in FIG. 9. The terminal fittings 1 and the carrier 2 are coupled by links 3, as shown in FIG. 10. The terminal fittings 1 are fed to a crimping machine, using the carrier 2, and the carrier 2 is inserted into a cutting mold 4 provided in the crimping machine and a crimping portion 5 of the terminal fitting 1 is arranged on an anvil 6, as shown in FIG. 11. A crimper 7 is arranged above the crimping portion 5 and can be lowered toward the anvil 6 to crimp the crimping portion 5 into connection with an insulated wire 8, as shown in FIG. 12. The cutting mold 4 also is lowered as the crimper 7 is lowered for cutting the link 3. In this way, a wire with a terminal fitting 9 shown in FIG. 13 is formed. Such a wire with the terminal fitting 9 is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,742,251.
A front end 4A of the above-described cutting mold 4 is located behind a rear end 5A of the crimping portion 5 to define a clearance between the cutting mold 4 and the crimping portion 5 for avoiding interference between the cutting mold 4 and the crimping portion 5 due to a dimensional error and a displacement of the terminal fitting 1. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 13, the link 3 projects back at the rear end 5A of the crimping portion 5. The crimping portion 5 is deformed plastically to extend in forward and backward directions when a high compression rate is set for compressing the core. Therefor, a backward projecting distance of the link 3 increases. The terminal fitting 1 is inserted into a housing (not shown). However, the link 3 will project back from the housing due to the plastic deformation of the crimping portion 5. As a result, adjacent wires with terminal fittings 9 may leak due to these projecting parts.
The invention was developed in view of the above situation and an object thereof is to suppress a backward projecting distance of a link.